Practice went fairly well once we got to it last night, but again, the guitarist was having technical issues that delayed our starting for more than 30 minutes. I'm almost to the point where I don't really care any more.We worked on three of the new songs I've been learning, and after clarification on some specifics related to timing and lead-ins, I think I have these three down well enough to not embarrass myself if we had to play them out. It wouldn't be clean, mind you, but adequate. With these three songs (and possibly one more we haven't touched on yet) it looks like we'll have three full set lists. My hope is that once I'm proficient on the entire third set, the guys will arrange for some real, paid gigs, since we'll be able to pull off a full night of music on our own. I guess we'll see how it goes. If something doesn't happen soon on the gig front though, I'm going to have to consider limiting my practice commitment with them. I won't quit, because I do dig their music, but... well, let's just say that these guys have an aura of negativity about them, and their issues are a drag on my psyche, so currently, the practices aren't positive enough to balance that out, which is one of the reasons I have to push myself to go. In fact, recently, I spend most Thursday nights sitting in front of the tv eating dinner & hoping they don't call me so I don't have to go. Gigging out would go a long way to balancing that, I think (as long as we don't have to deal with the stereotypical 'technical' issues and can get the setup/breakdown times reasonable).
Since I've gotten my drums set up in the basement now, I've taken the electric/practice amp & my keyboard down there as well, and last night, I brought my bass rig home too. I'm going to use their rig for practice, but now I can work on my songs at home, and eventually (once I get a PA system & a couple mics - oh yeah, and finish the house renovation!) I can start having people over to hang & play a little music. I'm going to look into what it would cost to get equipment be able to record each instrument downstairs as well. That (or a PA) may be my 'x-mas' gift to myself this year. I don't do x-mas, but this seems to be the time of year I tend to buy things for myself, like new clothes, underclothes, etc. I don't tend to buy myself many 'play' things, at least not big ticket items, during the year, and this time frame has become my 'acquisition' phase. Typically, I only buy something big every few years (drum set one year, bass rig a few years later, etc.) which is why I don't have a real guitar rig yet, nor a PA - vocal stuff will come first, as it's something I do more of than guitar playing (well, electric anyway) and I'll likely get more use out of it. All of my actual instruments cost around $100 or so, and while that might seem like a lot to some, it's really not a stretch on my budget to pick those up, so I don't consider them 'big ticket'. I mean, hell, I've seen a pair of name-brand jeans sell for more than I spent on my elec. guitar *and* my practice amp combined! The bass I'm playing now was under $100 too.
Part of me thinks I'm being foolish, that I really shouldn't buy anything music-related right now, as I have so much more to buy for this house, but the way I'm looking at it, there isn't really much that I like to do, so investing in something that might bring me a little happiness here & there is worth postponing some of the creature-comforts of living in this house (like a kitchen! lol), although, this next week, my company pays out any unused sick/leave time we have left, and I worked a couple hrs of overtime these past couple weeks, and if I combine those with a little extra cash (to wit, the money I've been saving by not going to bars 3-4 nights a week!), buying something like a PA won't really set me back all that much. (Btw, I think that might just be the longest run-on sentence I've ever written! Wow! Seriously, that whole thing was one sentence!!) *shakes head* Oh! I also just realized that I'm going to be getting around $600 back in the form of rebates on my furnace-a/c system, so I shouldn't have any worries about it, right?
The reason I remembered the rebates is that I received the certificate I needed (well, the contractor needed) for submitting my rebate form. There's something about this guy I just don't trust - I talked to him yesterday & he told me that I should be getting back around $410; $400 for the furnace & $10 for the thermostat, but that my a/c unit didn't qualify. I was surprised by that, because I was under the impression that it did, so I did some research. Turns out that as long as the items are AHRI certified, and meet a certain level of efficiency, they do qualify. I went to the web site, and it specifically states that they are certified, and I also contacted their customer service, where I got confirmation. They even offered to email the cert. to me (I received it early last evening). I called the contractor & told him this & he was like "I don't know what to tell you, my (I can't remember what he called it) told me that your unit doesn't qualify!". I also told him that I verified with my power company that it was efficient enough to qualify, and that the rebate for the furnace was $450 not $400, and the a/c rebate was $150. He just said something about having to 'look into that'. Personally, I feel like he was trying to scam $50 off my rebate for the furnace & just keep the a/c one, but it may be that he's just not very competent in dealing with the rebate system, I don't know. Anyway, he's irritating me, but I can't write him off until spring, because I need him to come back & recalibrate my a/c unit, since he did it incorrectly due to his son's screw-up. I'd really just like to be done with him...
Shit, I just remembered I have to send an email with all of my info so I can get the warranty started on this system - there's a 10 yr warranty, but they won't activate it until they have the install/inspection/in-service date, along with the serial numbers, etc. I really need to do that this weekend.
If you made it this far, you're very persistent, and I applaud you! *hands clapping*
11:43 a.m. - 2011-12-16
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